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2523
United StatesPatent Office
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2,922,890
MAGNETIC METHOD FOR PRODUCING HfGH
VELOCITY SHOCK WAVES IN GASES
Vernal Josephson, PaIos Verdes Estates, Calif., assignor
to the United States of America as represented by the
United Stites Atomic Energy Commission
Appfieation October 8, 1957, SeriaI No. 689,019
5 Cbdms. (Cl. 250—84.5)
The present invention relates to apparatus for pro-
ducing shock waves in gases. Such shock waves are gen-
erated by ionizing a gas and causing heating as a result
of the “Joule” effect and by the action of the magnetic
field of the induced currents in the ionized mass in itself
and with an external magnetic field. Resulting exceed-
ingly hot plasmas are useful for numerous purposes, in-
cluding as a light source for high speed photography,
producing X-rays or neutrons, or as a source of hot
plasma for injection into other apparatus.
In accordance with the present invention, a rarified
gas is ionized by the passage through the gas of a rapidly
changing high intensity magnetic field. The ionization
of the gas in a tapered tube results in a shock wave pro-
gressing toward the large end of the tube, but the effect
is very much intensified by the presence of a rapidly
growing in density of a diverging magnetic field. The
self-inductance of a coil suitable for the diverging mag-
netic field is so great as to limit the time-rate-of-change
of the magnetic field so that it is not suitable in itself for
creating the initial ionization of a gas. Therefore, in ac-
cordance with the present invention, two coils are pro-
vided, one of exceedingly low inductance and the other
having the required inductance necessary for establishing
an elongated diverging field.
It is accordingly an objective of the present invention
to provide apparatus for creating high velocity shock
waves in gases without the utilization of electrodes in the
gaseous zone.
Other objectives and advantages of the present inven-
tion will become apparent from the foHowing description
taken with the drawing made a part of this specification.
Referring to the drawing, a container 9 of insulating
material such as glass or quartz is utilized to contain the
selected gas to be ionized and compressed. This cmr-
tainer is of elongated conical shape for the most part
and may be provided with a closure dome 11 at the large
end thereof which is transparent to light or X-rays as the
case may be. In the event, however, that this apparatus is
to be utilized as a plasma source for injecting plasma
masses into other equipment, the large end of the coni-
cal section would be ported into such other apparatus. In
order that only that gas which has a desired characteris-
tic for a specific purpose will be present in the device,
evacuating and purging apparatus 13 of any kind well
known in the art is utilized and connected with the in-
terior of the vessel. A source of select, gas is provided
at 15 and connects with the interior of the small end
of the vessel. The atmosphere in the vessel is prefer-
ably at a pressure of between from 1 to 1000 microns.
A coil 17 of exceedingly low inductance is supported
on the small end of the vessel and is connected through
switch 21 to a source of current at high potential as repre-
sented by capacitor 19. Switch 21 is shown as an ordi-
nary switch for purposes of simplicity, but in practice,
in order to handle voltages of from 12 to 25 kilovolts,
and currents resulting from the discharge of a capacitor
of corn 6 to 12 microfarads charged to that potential, it
,a,ented
,af’~~z$~~
. 9
would be a massive switch of the ignitron or spark gap
type. The closure of switch 21 results in an exceedingly
high time-rate-of-change magnetic field in the gaseous
region in the small end of the vessel which results in
~ ionization of the gas. Once a state of ionization has been
created within the gas, it becomes apparent that the
ionized gas may become, in effect, a short-circuited single-
turn secondary winding of a transformer constituted by
itself and winding 17. The interacting magnetic fields
10 between the currents in the plasma and that of winding
17 establishes further heating of the plasma by inward
compression.
At the same time that coil 17 is energized, coil 23 is also
initially energized by the closure of switch 23 which con-
15 nects it in series with electrical energy source 25. This
source is a capacitor having a capacitance value as high
as 200 microfarads and charged to a potential of from
10 to 25 kilovolts. The magnetic field created by the coils
is diverging in geometery and therefore the plasma in-
20 itially established and preheated by coil 17 is caused to
further compress and pinch with the pinch progressing
from the small end to the large end of the vessel with the
result that the gaseous plasma is propelled by a force
directed toward the large end of the conical vessel. The
25 resulting very hot plasma can be used as a source of short
duration high intensity light for photographic purposes or
as indicated above, it can be utilized for other purposes.
In the application of the device for producing X-rays the
gas may be argon and for producing neutrons the gas may
30 be deuterium or a mixture of deuterium and tritium.
The foregoing has described a device for producing ex-
ceedingly high temperatures in gaseous plasmas. These
high temperatures result in phenomena that can be uti-
lized for various useful purposes such as illumination for
35 photographic purposes, the generation of X-rays if argon
gas is selected, and the generation of neutrons if, for ex-
ample, deuterium or a mixture of deuterium and tritium is
utilized. The above described embodiment is presented
for the purpose of facilitating the explanation of this in-
40 vention and not for purposes of limiting the scope thereof.
It is understood that other ramifications are likely and
possible within the spirit of this invention and, accord-
ingly, it is desired that it be understood that the invention
be considered limited only by the appended claims taken
45 in view of the prior art.
What is claimed is:
1. A device for producing high energy plasmas compris-
ing a tapered shock tube of dielectric material and having
a closed small end, an exceedingly low-inductance coil
50 supported about and axially aligned with the small end of
said tapered tube, an elongated multi-turn coil supported
upon the remainder of the exterior wall of the shock tube,
a potential source and switch means connected in series
with said low-inductance coil and a potential source and
55 switch means connected in series with said elongated coil,
means for hermetically sealing the large end of said tube,
means for purging said tube of gases and means for ad-
mitting a selected gas into said shock tube.
2. The device of claim 1 in which the first mentioned
60 potential source is a capacitor having a capacitance of
from 6 to 12 microfarads and charged to a potentiaf
between from 12 to 25 kilovolts and said second men-
tioned potential source is a capacitor having a capacitance
in the neighborhood of 200 microfarads and charged to a
65
potential between from 10 to 25 kilovolts.
3. The device of claim 2 in which the gas is argon at a
pressure of from 1 to 1000 microns and the tapered tube
large end is hermetically closed by a member transparent
70 to X-rays.
4. The device of claim 2 in which the gas is deuterium
at a pressvre of from 1 to 1000 microns and the tapered
 2,922,890
3 4
tube large end is closed by a member transparent to neu- 1,844,420 Buttolph .-___ .-Feb-----. Feb.9, 1932
trons. 2,030>957 Bethenod etal. ----_ Feb- Feb. 18, 1936
5. The device of claim2in which the gas is hydrogen 2,326,773 Floyd ------------------ Aug. 17, 1943
and the tapered tube is closed by a member transparent to 2,826,708 Foster ___--___ ----_-_--Mar. 11, 1958
light. 5
OTHER REFERENCES
References Cited in the file of this patent
Kurchatov, Discovery, vol. 17, No. 6, June 1956, pp.
UNITED STATES PATENTS 227–233.
Re. 21,150 Von Lepel _______________ July 11, 1939 Burkhardt et al.: Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 28,
1,604,986 Garity ------------------ Nov. 2, 1926 10 No. 5, pp. 519-521.